TexasEscapes.comWe Take Texas Personally
A Texas Travel, History & Architecture Magazine
SITE MAP : : NEW : : RESERVATIONS : : TEXAS TOWNS A-Z : : FEATURES : : COLUMNS : ::ARCHITECTURE : : IMAGES
HOME
SEARCH SITE
RESERVATIONS
Hotels
Cars
Air
USA
World
Cruises
TEXAS TRAVEL
TOWNS A to Z
Towns by Region
Ghost Towns
TRIPS :
State Parks
Rivers
Lakes
Drives
Maps
LODGING
TEXAS
FORUM
FEATURES :
Ghosts
People
Historic Trees
Cemeteries
ARCHITECTURE :
Courthouses
Jails
Bridges
Theaters
Churches
Gas Stations
Water Towers
Monuments/Statues
Schoolhouses
Post Offices
Depots
IMAGES :
Old Neon
Murals
Signs
BOOKS
COLUMNS
TE Site
Site Information
Recommend Us
Newsletter
About Us
Contact TE
Recommended Reading
The California Bootlegging Years
 
 Texas : Features : Columns : History by George
BUYER BEWARE!
Ola Covey
as told to Louise George
Louise George
Author: Personal interviews with Texas Panhandle men and women born in the early years of the twentieth century rewarded me with hundreds of stories illustrating their everyday life. I like to share those stories just as they were told to me.

Ola Covey grew up in a small town in Arkansas. She moved to Texas when she was twenty-one and went to work in the Gray County Clerk’s office, which was in Lefors at the time. Soon after she went to work, an election moved the courthouse to Pampa when it was a boom town and Prohibition was the law. Working in the courthouse at that particular time gave her a unique opportunity to observe some very interesting events. In her own words she tells about one such experience.
“I knew from what they said around the courthouse that the bootlegging was going on. Of course, they’d bring the bootlegger in and fine him. I remember one time especially. There was a prominent lawyer here, a very good lawyer, and he was known to like his booze pretty well. It was sort of a status symbol to have your own bootlegger, you know. He came in one morning and he said, ‘Oh, Charlie, (my boss’s name was Charlie) let me tell you what I found. I found me a really good bootlegger. He brings in the real stuff.’ Of course, the higher the price was, the greater the prestige. He said, ‘I got me two crates of it. Of course, it cost. It cost me an arm and a leg, but I got some really good stuff. Pure Scotch whiskey.’

“This was after the courthouse had been moved to Pampa, but before the new court-house was built. We had moved into the basement of the old First Baptist Church. We just had very limited space and very small desks, so when this lawyer came in, we all stopped typing and were listening to him tell about the bootlegger and the stuff he had. He was telling it loud so as to impress us all. He went on - blah, blah, blah. Finally, he went on out of our office, but had to go by the sheriff’s office as he left. Since we were in such a small area, we heard everything that went on. The sheriff said, ‘Come in Charlie.’ (The lawyer’s name was Charlie too), he said, ‘Come in, Charlie. I want to show you this paraphernalia. I’m going to send this guy up so far it will take ten dollars worth of postage to send him a letter. I’m really going to send him up.’

“Charlie, the lawyer, said, ‘Oh, don’t be so hard on him. I may want to represent him.’

“The sheriff took him in and began to show him that stuff. He showed him all these bottles with these fancy labels on them, and the sealing wax they were sealed with and everything, and he showed him a big container of pure alcohol and another of Scotch- colored coloring. So, it was all a fake.

“Charlie looked at that and his eyes began to bug out and he said, ‘Why, that S.O.B.! I hope you send him up for a hundred years!’

“‘Don’t be so hard on him, Charlie,’ the sheriff said, ‘you many want to represent him.’”

© Louise George
History by George

Ola Covey is featured in Louise George’s book, Some of My Heroes Are Ladies, Women, Ages 85 to 101, Tell About Life in the Texas Panhandle. Louise can be reached at (806) 935-5286, by mail at Box 252, Dumas, TX 79029, or by e-mail at lgeorge@nts-online.net.
September 28, 2004
HOME
Privacy Statement | Disclaimer
Website Content Copyright ©1998-2004. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved
This page last modified: November 1, 2004